Now in its fifth year, Ghana's Chale Wote street art festival took place in Accra last weekend under the theme of 'African Electronics'. Taking over the streets of the historic Jamestown for two days, the festival saw a wealth of talent from Ghana and beyond, with contributions from performance artists, acrobats, sculptors, designers, graffiti artists, DJs, actors, boxers, traditional musicians, fashion designers, rappers, filmmakers, and more. The festival serves as a platform to promote visual arts in Ghana, where there is limited funding or public engagement with this industry. Holding Chale Wote in this communal space is therefore particularly important as it gives artists and audiences the rare opportunity to interact with and learn from each other. An electric atmosphere could be felt pumping through the festival through constant displays of energy and creativity, as people of all ages and backgrounds came out onto the streets to play their part in the event. In the following pages, we asked 7 of the festival’s exhibitors – from cultural historians to graffiti artists - what African Electronics means to them.

Alice McCool is a freelance blogger, anti-corruption campaigner and masters student at the University of London's School of Oriental and African Studies. You can tweet her at @McCoolingtons.

The legendary South African writer on storytelling, losing Bra Hugh Masekela and his hopes for South Africa

Zakes Mda, endearingly referred to as Bra Zakes, is a South African literary giant. He is the exemplar "jack of all trades, master of all"—a professional 'dabbler' as he refers to it. An accomplished novelist, playwright, poet and painter, he has written close to two dozen novels thus far, including the beloved Little Suns, Ways of Dying and The Heart of Redness. He is extremely hilarious as an individual and never afraid to speak his glorious mind. Case in point:

"Some random guy claims he has lost all respect for me because I hold a different view from his on a specific issue. I'm trying hard to recall what his respect has done for me lately or ever did."